Author and artist Ursula Vernon steps into the character of the Sea Witch in order to explain all that unpleasantness with Ariel, the mermaid who wanted to be human. Along the way, we learn what happened after the story we know ended. But first, she sets the record straight about her motivations for taking Ariel’s voice. She insists it wasn’t out of selfishness.
No, I took her voice for two simple reasons—she was a twit and she was in love. I took one look at her and knew that she’d spill everything she knew in the pretty human boy’s ear, and then where would we be?
It doesn’t go so well when humans know about us, have you noticed? Ask one selkie if she’s feeling happier now that she spent a decade on shore with some jerk who stole her hide off the rocks. (Sure, some of them think it’ll be romantic—bull selkies aren’t anybody’s notion of charming, though they do have a certain over-muscled appeal—but it’s not so romantic when you’re spending your youth cooking and cleaning for an illiterate fisherman and bearing his brats through a pelvis that isn’t nearly so accommodating as it used to be.)
I’d say “ask a Stellar’s sea cow” but you can’t, because they’re all dead. And just try to find a sea mink. I was very fond of sea mink. They were inquisitive little devils and they made chirpy noises when you stroked them. I haven’t forgiven humans for the sea mink. Or the sea cows, for that matter.
Do not get me started on the great auk.
The short essay is quite interesting as the Sea Witch compares the world of sea creatures to the world of men. -via Metafilter